Summer's Love
by Song Of A Free Heart
Summary: Season Spirit AU, Merida x Eret Summer is the unchanging season - and the irony is that she's the one who fell in love with a mortal.


**I posted this on tumblr a couple weeks back, and wanted to put it up here for safe keeping. **

**Standard disclaimers apply. This story is Merida x Eret. Don't like, don't read.**

_Summer's Love_

Merida loved summer in Scotland, and places like it. She loved summer in all its forms – she _was_ summer, so that was kind of a requirement. But there was something about woodland canopies that kept the heat at bay, and promised adventure to anyone brave enough to look for it. She loved the highlands when they were draped in a green blanket of grass, the downs, the mountains… those were her favorite places to enjoy her season. And it always would be.

Some days, though, she was in the mood for the beach.

It had been more than a hundred years – the pain was mostly gone. So she could just enjoy the wind and the surf, and the sun sparkling on the water as the sand reflected back the heat.

This was summer at its finest. Long, lazy days that bled into each other, with little to no responsibility. Time seemed to stop, and the world hung in a summer haze. (Well, whatever part of the world she governed in that moment, anyway.)

Leaning back on her hands, Merida smiled as she watched a group of young children splash in the shallows. She was mostly ignoring the adults. She wasn't in the mood to be annoyed with them today. Bringing summer was not easy, and today she just wanted to enjoy it.

"Summer love."

The words reached her through the buzz of other conversations. And she knew she shouldn't listen. She didn't _want_ to listen, because she knew what would probably come next. But it still caught her attention, and she was listening despite herself.

"It's just a fling," a college aged girl told her friend. "It won't last."

Just like that, Merida's good mood was gone. It took a sizable effort to keep the gorgeous day from going with it. (Emily Jane didn't like people messing with her weather patterns, and she was still sore with Merida, even after all these years. Talk about holding a grudge. You don't show up for work one time…)

"Summer love."

She hated that phrase.

Hated how humans used it. To them is was a passing fancy. A fling. Whatever you called it, you didn't expect it to last. It was a game to them. One that even Jack Frost found distasteful. (They had talked about it once.)

Merida scowled as she looked out at the horizon, where the sea met the sky. A thousand memories of being perched on the bow of a ship, looking out at sea and sky, washed over her. Somehow, even the memories of laughter still hurt a little.

They had no idea.

She was summer. She was long days where nothing seemed to change.

She wasn't Rapunzel, who brought the thaw to winter, and the daily discover of new flowers as they bloomed, and animals waking up. She wasn't Hiccup, with his steady change of colors as he prepared the earth for sleep.

She hated change. She hated the temporary.

Rapunzel didn't care when one of her flowers died, because she was always creating more. Merida didn't understand that mentality.

It was why it was so bitingly ironic that she had fallen in love with a mortal. Jack and Rapunzel had each other. Hiccup had fallen for an immortal Valkyrie. But Merida…

No. She had been prepared to spend forever happily single. She didn't mind spending a few millennia riding the south winds, bringing summer. She was perfectly happy.

Then Eret had stumbled into her life. Literally, he had stumbled. And she had started keeping an eye on him because he amused her – and because, honestly, _someone_ had to keep him out of trouble. So for a while she had been his invisible guardian, almost always aware of where he was. The poor guy seemed to have no clue what "grace" was. For some reason, she had found that amusing.

She had never thought that he would actually be able to see her. And she certainly hadn't realized her amusement with him had turned into more. Not until she was too far in to even think about turning back.

And she had always been happy alone… but there was a different kind of happiness that came with being in love with someone who loved you back. Of sharing life's adventures. There was even a special kind of joy that came from missing someone when you were apart, knowing that they missed you too… Then finally being reunited with them.

They had fallen into a rhythm. He and his crew followed her whenever they could. When she had to leave, she always came back as soon as the tilt of the earth allowed. For a while, she had pretended that their life would never change.

But she had been forced to admit, that wasn't possible.

She had hated watching him age. Watching him die. Knowing that, eventually, he would be gone. By human standards, he had a long life – especially considering the era he lived in. But for her, it hadn't been near long enough. Even knowing it would come… She hadn't expected just how much it would hurt to watch him pass away.

She had hated it, but she had been there. Leaving him wasn't an option. She was immortal, faithful, and unchanging.

It had never bother her that he got older. She hadn't carted about how he looked. (That had bothered him, but she had thought nothing of it.)

What had bothered her was that he had been there, and then he had been gone.

More than a century later, she still loved him. She was back on her plan of riding the south wind alone. And she didn't regret her love. It hurt occasionally. But she would never regret it.

"Summer love" was what humans called their flings, and throw away romances.

It was an insult.

Because summer's love was constant and unchanging – just as she was. She had given her immortal heart to one man, and it would still be his for as long as the season's continued.


End file.
